If you’ve ever wanted to get a job working for a wedding florist - start here. The Flower Freelance Intensive is a multi-day workshop that teaches you everything you need to know to be successful as a freelance floral designer. Sophie Felts and Sue Prutting are the hostesses and generously share all their extensive knowledge and experience in floral design with the attendees. I was honored to be invited as a guest teacher last year and I met so many wonderful new designers that I was able to hire for multiple events. This year’s new line up of teachers is equally exciting and I’m looking forward to meeting a new batch of freelancers!

Last year, Sophie asked me to teach my more sparse and minimal approach to bouquets and small table pieces. The bouquet ingredients were beautiful but definitely a challenge to design with and required a lot of patience. It was so interesting to see the students’ interpretation of the design - all having been given fairly similar ingredients.

Next up, we worked on creating small satellite table arrangement using small bowls filled with chicken wire and water. These small but mighty pieces are perfect en masse for a long dining table, or even filling gaps between larger arrangements. If I remember correctly this challenge was timed to give the students a feel for needing to work quickly (when you have 50 centerpieces to make for a wedding, quick but good work is essential!)

I stayed on after lunch to help out with a fun project of building large installations. I think this was a race? My memory is not so good - this should teach me to post about things as they happen vs. a year later! The class divided into 3 groups - Sue’s group constructed a huge hanging installation, Sophie’s group did an oversized pergola/chuppah structure, and my group did a ceremony arch. It was amazing how quickly all of these designs came together with so many students working on each one. I also love that the flowers we used for our arch were leftovers - so it was a great test of the students’ editing skills to choose a combination from what we had to work with that was intentional and impactful.

The kind and talented Jen from Jen S Photography was on hand to document the class and did such a beautiful job capturing all the student work. Thanks for sharing the images Jen!

Find out more about the course and register at the link below. Spaces are limited and filling fast! I’d also like to mention this course is an incredible value. I’ve attended floral workshops in the past that were the same price but only a tiny fraction of the amount of practice and course content you receive from this course. If you’re looking for very very specific training on becoming a freelance designer, this course is a must!

A favorite wedding for a favorite friend and wedding planner, Linda Ha. I was so honored to create unique dried and foraged florals for her wedding last year. Vicki Grafton’s beautiful images were featured on Martha Stewart Weddings recently so I’m excited to finally be able to share them here!

The flowers were textural, feminine, seasonal, and delicate; a perfect pairing to an exquisite brunch spread created by the Ritz Carlton Pentagon City chefs. The best botanicals of early summer were used throughout the decor, including garden roses, columbine, ranunculus, sweet peas, astilbe, peonies, and spring greens and vines.